Fire at Escravos, oil sieges persist

A fire broke out at ChevronTexaco’s Escravos oil terminal in Nigeria on Saturday, a day after the last of women protesters ended a ten-day occupation of the facility to back demands for jobs and amenities, officials said. But similar occupation of four other facilities of the US oil giant entered the seventh day on Monday.

"Lightening that struck at Escravos…sparked off an outbreak of fire on one of the tanks," said a company statement sent to IRIN.

About 80,000 barrels of crude was quickly pumped out of the affected tank with an estimated 180,000 barrels of crude, and the fire was quickly brought under control, the statement signed by ChevronTexaco spokesman, Sola Omole, said.

Although the company said there were no casualties, the incident underscores the danger in which the impoverished, surrounding communities live.

On 8 July some 150 women protesters from the Ugborodo community, which is nearest the Escravos facility, began occupation of the export terminal, which saw the number of protesters grow eventually to over 2,000. Their disruptive presence on the air strip, the helicopter pad and the docks trapped over 700 Nigerian and expatriate employees of ChevronTexaco at the facility surrounded by swamps, creeks and the Atlantic Ocean.

But just as the siege was ending last week after negotiations involving company officials and community leaders, another set of women protesters, copying their action, invaded four other swamp facilities in the western Niger Delta, grounding work there.

Officials sent last week to negotiate with the women were turned back because they were not considered high ranking. ChevronTexaco officials said they expected talks to get underway with the women on Monday.

These recent incidents in Nigeria’s troubled oil region are the first in which women were exclusively taking action to draw the attention of oil companies and their government partners to their impoverishment. The poor communities of the region feel cheated out of the huge oil wealth pumped from their land and militant youths in the past had frequently disrupted oil operations in protest.